Zheng Hongkui tried to defend himself, but before he could finish speaking, Zheng Zhilong waved his hand to stop him. Pen? Interesting? Pavilion wWw. ｂiquge。 ｉｎfo

"Okay, I'll just say that, I didn't say that the death of the second brother was your fault, there is a debtor and a debtor, we should go to Liu Xiang's bad luck."

Zheng Hongkui felt a little relieved, but Zheng Zhilong's next words made him fall into an ice cave.

“…… However, the fourth brother, you have been unfavorable recently, and you have encountered bad luck three or four times, so it is better to go back to the old house in Anping to recuperate for a while...... The business in Japan, let Ah Cai go for the time being, anyway, it's all cooked, and everything is done according to the old rules. ”

Zheng Cai hesitated to come out of the ranks, and said to Zheng Zhilong: "Xie Dalongtou trusts, Ah Cai must handle things properly...... and then glanced back at Zheng Hongkui, bowed his head and retreated.

The brothers of the Zheng family, except for Zheng Zhilong, the big dragon, all have their own errands, and the importance of the errand determines their status in the Zheng family. Zheng Hongkui is an old man and considers things thoroughly, and the trade from the center and left to Japan has always been handled by him, and most of the Zheng family's income comes from this trade route, and Zheng Hongkui's status has also risen, second only to his second brother Zheng Zhihu. Now that he has been sent back to Anping's old mansion to be idle, although Zheng Zhilong said it very tactfully, anyone with a discerning eye can see that this is the rhythm of kicking him out of the Zheng family's inner circle.

Zheng Hongkui was discouraged for a while, and kept saying that he was not at fault, but the eldest brother obviously blamed him for doing this, maybe in the eyes of the eldest brother, he was not active enough to rescue the second brother and did not contribute to the work, which indirectly led to the tragic death of the second brother at the hands of Liu Xiang. In addition, the robbery of Kinmen Island and the attack on the center and left are calculated together with the old accounts and new accounts, so it is expected that this will be dealt with.

After being stunned for a long time, Zheng Hongkui came back to his senses and found that Zheng Zhilong was still staring at him, his eyes were like torches, his heart was cold, and he replied with a strong spirit: "...... Thank you eldest brother for your concern, things have not been going well recently, and I am also a little tired, so I will go back to Anping to rest for a while......"

Seeing that Zheng Hongkui honestly accepted his arrangement, Zheng Zhilong took his eyes off him and turned to Zheng Zhiguan: "You go to Qiongzhou Mansion again and urge those cannons." Although the surnamed Xia kept saying that it would take three months to cast, it was estimated that it was an excuse, and the silver we bought the cannon was paid in advance, so that he could deliver it early. ”

Zheng Zhiguan respectfully responded: "Yes, I will leave tomorrow." ”

"Then you don't have to rush for a day or two. The surname Xia just left today, and he just finished the battle, and there is always something to deal with when he returns to Lingao, so I guess I don't have time to see you, so let's wait a few days and then set off. ”

"Got it."

Zheng Zhilong squinted his eyes and looked in the direction of Xia Nan's departure again, at this time, the Qiongzhou battalion fleet had turned into some black spots on the sea level, and it was about to disappear from sight. After a while, he said lightly: "The guests are also gone, let's go back." ”

The Zheng brothers followed behind Zheng Zhilong and left the dock together.

The two fleets of the Qiongzhou battalion rendezvoused on Nanao Island, rested for one night under the warm hospitality of Tang Baicai, deputy commander-in-chief of Nanao, and returned to Lingao the next day.

The marching army returned triumphantly and was greeted at the Bosuke Wharf. Lin Weiye, Sun Yuanhua, Huang Hansheng and others, who were at home, led the managers of various factories and the officers and soldiers of the first battalion to greet them at the wharf.

After a brief exchange of greetings with Lin Weiye and others, Xia Nan asked Wei Lianheng and Huang Hansheng to take the prisoners to the barracks for resettlement, and then could not wait to "receive" the leader of the Dutch, the chief administrator of the Dutch, Putmans, and the captain of the flagship "Fort Middle", Van Bommel, who temporarily took his place in his command.

How to digest these captives, transform them into a new force of the Qiongzhou Battalion Navy, and expand the navy to deal with Zheng Zhilong in the near future is the top priority. Fortunately, the pirates are okay, as soon as Liu Xiang dies, the dragons are leaderless, and it will not be more difficult for these guys to return to obedience than Liu Heizi in Tuoni Island at the beginning, it can't be just a carrot and a stick. But the Dutch were in trouble, they were not pirates who lived by plundering, but the employees of the United Dutch East India Company, or mercenaries of the company, who had a stable income, and most of them had stable families in the Netherlands, and it was much more difficult to persuade them to stay than pirates.

Putmans had calmed down from his outburst. If the previous gaffe was mainly because the consequences of the defeat would affect the throne of the chief executive that he had won so hard, now that he has become a prisoner, no matter what the result will not be worse than the current one, Putmans calmed down instead.

Van Bommel had a better mentality than Putmans, and compared to his boss, who was bound to be labeled as "miscommanded" by the council and dismissed from his duties, the defeat of an armed merchant captain in a naval battle was not the end of the world, not to mention that he also worked hard, and even took the place of the commander for a time, doing a lot of things outside the scope of his duties. What he is most concerned about is whether he can let his family redeem him with the ransom money and continue to be his captain.

But what Xia Nan wanted to do was to take hundreds of Dutchmen, including the two of them, under his command, and the three of them had very different thoughts and purposes, and the meeting took place under such circumstances.

Xia Nan smiled and said in English: "If the information I know about my subordinates is correct, this is Mr. Putmans, the chief administrator of the United Dutch East India Company, and next to you is Mr. Van Bommel, the flagship captain of this fleet, right?" ”

Putmans and Van Bommel were a little surprised and looked at each other, they did not expect that in the Ming Kingdom in the Far East, there was such a fluent figure in English, even more fluent than they did.

Dutch is the official language of the Netherlands and one of the official languages of Belgium, belonging to the "Indo-European-Germanic-West Germanic branch", which is between German and English, and is closer to English than either language. Except for the absence of the three letters Q, X, and Y, even the letters are the same as in English. So even if the Dutch have not deliberately learned English, they can listen and speak. The two of them heard a language very close to their mother tongue in a foreign country, and they had an inexplicable sense of intimacy, and the depression in their hearts was reduced a lot.

Putmans felt it more strongly than Van Bommel. In order to help the company open the door to trade in the Ming Kingdom, he had to deal with pirate leaders like Zheng Yiguan and Liu Xiang, and for the purpose of communication, he carefully studied Chinese. But the difficulty of the Chinese language is far beyond his imagination, and until now, he can only listen to and speak some simple conversations. After being captured, he was mentally prepared to communicate with the other party in Chinese, and now he heard fluent English, instead of obscure, word-by-word Chinese, his psychology was much easier, at least the two sides communicated more easily, and his meaning could be conveyed to the other party more clearly.